Video chat applications have evolved from a basic (local) peer to peer model, through stages of server-based relay communication, and finally through modern SIP services that initialize a peer-to-peer session through the help of an external server. Throughout this evolution, however, the target use-case was simply a user in front of a device, talking with another user in front of another device. A more versatile solution is desirable.
For certain newer devices used in video chat, such as the television, there is a limitation. Because the device is heavy and fixed, it is either impossible or burdensome to provide an immersive experience that allows the user to show/see objects outside of the field of view of the camera fixed or attached to the TV. Some existing solutions to alleviate this issue are using PZT (pan-zoom-tilt) cameras to allow the camera to pivot automatically; these are costly and precarious on a modern thin TV. Alternatively, using a SW-FOV (super-wide field of view) camera provides the ability to virtually zoom the camera; but these appear blurry on high-resolution displays and either cause lens distortion from the “fish-eye” lens or are computationally heavy on the host device (e.g. TV) to fix these issues.
It would be desirable to have an alternative to providing a full-field of view for a fixed device, even greater and with more freedom than the current state-of-the-art.